Mexico freezes bank accounts of entities sanctioned by U.S.

The Mexican government's financial crime department has frozen the bank accounts of companies and people blacklisted by the United States under accusations of having evaded the sanction regime imposed on Venezuela, its chief said on Friday.

The bank accounts of "all those listed" by the U.S Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control were frozen, according to Reuters.

Libre Abordo and Schlager received some 30 million barrels of Venezuelan oil. /File pic from Reuters

The Treasury said on Thursday it would blacklist companies in actions against Mexican firms involved in trading millions of barrels of Venezuelan oil, accusing Libre Aborodo, a Mexico-based commercial companies, and related firm Schlager Business Group of helping Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's administration evade sanction.

The Treasury also imposed sanctions on four firms linked to Mexicans Joaquin Leal Jimenez, Veronica Esparza and Olga Zepeda, which it accused of having cooperated with Libre Abordo, Schlager and businessman Alex Saab, arrested last week in Cape Verde, to evade sanctions.

Screenshot from the U.S. Department of the Treasury

"Saab and Leal, working with Mexico-based Libre Abordo and Schlager Business Group, brokered the re-sale of over 30 million barrels of crude oil on behalf of (Venezuela's state-run) PDVSA," the Treasury said on Thursday.

Nieto said the accounts of Zepeda were among those that were frozen.

Libre Abordo and Schlager began receiving Venezuelan oil for resale in Asian markets in 2019 after signing an oil-for-food pact with Maduro's government framed as a humanitarian provision.

While the companies supplied about 500 water trucks to Venezuela, 210,000 tons of corns originally included in the pact were not delivered, Libre Abordo said, adding that very low oil prices modified a schedule agreed by the parties.

The agreement signed by the firms in 2019 with Maduro's government would be protected by a license issued by the United States exempting the supply of humanitarian goods to Venezuela, including food, from sanctions, the company said.

Libre Abordo announced bankruptcy in May after losing $90 million amid what it called "excessive" U.S. pressure. The trade with Venezuela got suspended.

(With input from Reuters)